Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) has been an international issue for many years, as represented most publicly by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN-IPCC). Reports issued by this Panel have indicated that the world is heating up, and much of this heating is due to carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere, increasing the “greenhouse” effect. Further, the Panels’ reports go on to blame much of this increase on humankinds’ activities, including burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity, and to power vehicles, industry and residences. Atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is also noted to be caused by various other human activities, such as deforestation.
This presentation will describe the situation as depicted by the UN-IPCC and other AGW supporters. Then the theories, models, and assumptions utilized by AGW adherents will be examined in the light of scientific evidence, including laboratory experiments and numerous field observations of both earth temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The author will show that predictions of global warming developed by the theories and models do not agree with actual observations, and that these models do not describe historical data accurately. Neither have they been good at predicting the future. Reasons for the lack of agreement will be discussed.
Dire warnings of increased sea levels, flooding, ice sheet and glacier melting, hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, and droughts, and the loss of polar bears have all been published in the recent past, based on the presumption that AGW is factual. The author will briefly discuss these issues and show how he belives that they are not, in fact, happening now and they are not likely to happen in the future due to global warming.
Bio - Arvid Pasto is currently Director, C3/Oak Ridge. He retired in February 2007 as Director, High Temperature Materials Laboratory, and Manager of EERE and Technology Programs, Metals and Ceramics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Prior to this, Arvid was Leader, Ceramic Processing Group from 1992 to 1993, and from 1991 to 1992, a Technical Staff Member of the Ceramic Processing Group.
Previous experience includes eleven years (1980 - 1991) at the corporate R&D center of GTE Laboratories Inc. in Waltham, MA, as a staff member and research group leader, developing structural ceramics for application in advanced heat engines. From 1972 - 1980 Arvid was in the Metals and Ceramics Division of ORNL, developing nuclear fuels and ceramic neutron absorber materials for various reactor concepts.
His degrees are from the State University of New York, College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and include a B.S. in Ceramic Science in 1967, an M.S. in Ceramics in 1969, and a Ph. D. in Ceramics in 1972. Arvid is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society; is on the Advisory Board for the Materials Science and Engineering Dept. of Virginia Tech; and served on the Advisory Board for the Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology at Alfred University; as well as the Board of Directors of, and Vice Chairman and Chair of Membership Committee of (2003), the US Advanced Ceramics Association.
Dr. Pasto is a mineralogist by hobby, and has written the definitive English-language book on the mineral fluorite. He has intensively studied the anthropogenic global warming literature, and prepared two major presentations on the topic: one highly technical, and the other more appropriate for general audiences.
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